Should We Trust Polls?

Polls are how we understand the world, but could they be lying to us?

Polls. Everyone is always talking about them and analyzing them. We try to gauge our understanding of the world with them. But how much can we rely on them?

One thing we know is they’re always reversing themselves. One day they’ll tell us one thing, and then the other something completely opposite. And yet still we act like they’re something we can trust.

And none of us ever see the polls. We just have to take what we are given in faith. There’s that little arrow, and when it points one way, we assume that means something even if we don’t know why.

But if you object to this, saying, “We can’t trust the polls!” people look at you as if you’re crazy. Even when you bring up how the polls are always changing, they think that means nothing. “The last time a poll changed was 780,000 years ago,” they’ll say. Yes, which means it could change again at any moment!

But they think the polls are the only way. But we don’t even need the polls anymore. We have GPS. And that’s not going to get thrown off because you’re near another magnet.

So, no, I don’t trust the polls. Sure, the magnet points approximately north now and has for hundreds of thousands of years, but one day you could be hiking in the woods, the polls will reverse, and suddenly you think south is north and will get lost. Yes, this scenario is extremely unlikely, but it could happen.

So I don’t trust the polls. And neither should you.